The article explores the thematics of breathing in Paul Celanís (1920Ė1970) poems and poetics. It is argued that in Celan breathing is a holistic phenomenon and an essential part of the poemsí materiality, a force that animates both the poetic and bodily corpus. Thus we ask here, by what poetic means written and oral word and respiration are connected. The bodily, temporal, spiritual, inspirational and interpretational aspects of breathing are addressed in order to understand how respiration as a bodily phenomenon becomes poetic and what kind of thematics are thus evoked. Exploring these thematics, including divine inspiration, asubjective experience, and non-causal temporality, Celanís oeuvre is read in the context of Büchner, Heidegger, Mandelstam, and Abulafia